Best known for his discovery of Barnard's star in 1916, Edward Emerson Barnard was a gifted astronomer who grew up with little formal education. In 1876, he purchased his first telescope, a 5-inch refractor and discovered his first comet in 1881. In 1892, he discovered Amalthea, the fifth moon of Jupiter, making him the first to discover a new Jovian moon since Galileo in 1609. After joining Yerkes Observatory at the University of Chicago in 1895, Barnard spent great amounts of time photographing the Milky Way. Posthumously, his photographs were published in 1927 as A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way.

Professional astronomers use large telescopes all over the world, and even
in space. Most of the largest ground-based reflecting telescopes are concentrated
in Hawaii, Chile, and the Canary Islands that take advantage of the dark
skies and superior seeing conditions created by high elevations, dry and
steady airflow, and great distances from city lights. You will also find
large relfecting telescopes in the United States (California, Arizona and
Texas among other states), South Africa, Russia, Australia, China and other
countries. Check out this list of large reflecting telescopes with primary
mirrors that range in size from 15 to 2.2 meters in diameter for one that
might be located near you, or plan your next vacation to visit one.

To view the details of any telescope in this list, please click
on the name of the telescope. You can also sort the telescopes, by clicking
on the table headings.